TANZANIA WINS THE BAE PAYMENT ARGUMENT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN LONDON

 From Second Left Hon John cheyo MP,Mussa Zungu MP, Mrs Kariuki MP and Hugh Bailey MP in the house of commons today
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By  Ayoub  mzee-London

 

 International Development Committee questioned  DFID, MOJ, The Serious Fraud office and BAE Systems on Financial Crimes today in committee  Committee Room 8, The Palace of Westminster. The   Committee  took  evidence from:

At 10.00

• Philip Bramwell, Group General Counsel, BAE Systems PLC
• Bob Keen, Head of Government Relations, BAE Systems PLC
• Lord Cairns, Independent Chair, BAE Systems PLC Advisory Board on Tanzania 

At 10.45

• Richard Alderman, Director, Serious Fraud Office 

At 11.30

• Rt Hon Alan Duncan, Minister of State, Department for International Development
• Rt Hon Lord McNally, Minister of State, Ministry of Justice
• Phil Mason, Head, Anti- Corruption, Department for International Development
• Joy Hutcheon, Acting Director General, Department for International Development
• Tim Jewell, Deputy Director, Criminal Law Team, Legal Directorate, Ministry of Justice 

This was a one-off evidence session with two broad aims. 

The first and second panels examined the background to the agreement between BAE Systems and the Serious Fraud Office arising from the criminal offence of improper book keeping, which BAE Systems admitted in connection with the sale of a military Air Traffic Control system to the government of Tanzania. The panels  also addressed the issue of how the people of Tanzania will benefit from the reparations that BAE Systems has agreed to pay. 

The third panel  examined the BAE Systems and Tanzania case as well as whether the case allows any general lessons to be drawn about how best to combat financial crimes, including bribery, in developing countries. 

The session also went on to look at the working of the Bribery Act and the Government’s guidance.

The UK parliamentary committee  which  comprised  of   Malcom Bruce  MP (Chair  lib Dems ),Hugh  Bailey  MP  (Labour )Richard  Burden(Labour), Sam  Gyimah (Conservatives),Richard  Hamington Mp (Conservatives),Pauline  Latham (conservatives) Jeremy  Lefroy  MP( conservatives) ,Michael  Maccann MP(conservatives)Anas SarwarMP(Labour) ,Chris   white  MP ( conservatives) were appalled   by the  fact  that  The $47 million that BAE has been ordered to pay to the "Tanzanian people" will be dispersed via selected NGOs, rather than to the government of Tanzania  and  were also  amazed  at  the length of  time  BAE   is  taking  to  reach  a decision.

 The  DFID  was in  the  view  that  they  have  a  great  respect  of  the Tanzania  parliamentary  scrutiny  procedures, a  growing   investigative  journalism   and  government  collective  responsibility. DFID   said  that  if  Tanzania  is  good   enough  to  account  for  the  budgetary  supplementary from the  UK ,  then it  must be  good   enough   for  the  funds   from BAE .Hon Alan  Duncan, minister  of   state  ,DFID  concluded  by  saying  that  the  only  people   are  good  enough  to  handle  this  money  are  the   people  of  Tanzania  through  their  democratically   elected   government

The  low  side  of  this  is  that  the  parliamentary  committee has  no legal  powers  on  BAE  in  terms  of  specific  performance